Fall is fund raising and festival time.The Binghamton Brew Fest was Sept.
17, no word on how it went.

The Madison Co. Hop Festival was
also held Saturday, Sept. 17.Dave Clark, Jim Burt,
Jeff Tonole (Ithaca club President, IPA), Joan and I
did a Homebrew booth. It went very well. Great weather and an
interested crowd made it fun. We served a good bit of our Homebrew, about
10 different ones, including Dave Clark’s Mead and Cranberry Cider.
There were a many good brews in the Craft Beer tent, which was typically
crowded. Most were from some local distributor. I made a point of
trying Brown Ales, of which, there were a good many. One was very good,
can’t remember where it was from.

The
Exit
65 Music Festival will be Sept. 25, there’s still time to enter
your Homebrew.You could just
attend, the music lineup looks great.

Hopshire
made a Harvest Ale with wet hops contributed by home hop farmers.This year, I took about 2.5 lb. of my
wet hops up.The release will be
Oct. 1, come by and try it.

Sudsy
Brews & Fiery Foods is planned for Oct. 8th at the Center for Technology and Innovation,
on Water St., Binghamton.We need
some folks to pour beer samples, so if you’re interested, make sure Dave
King (2) knows.

We should do a Beer Tour,
probably early to mid Jan. would be good.Coachmaster
would cost around $35/ea., depending upon bus size and how full it is.

Knickerbocker
Battle of the Brews is scheduled for Nov. 12, in Albany at the Pump
Station, so let me know if you’d like to Judge or Steward, maybe we can
ride up together.

Rich placed the hop order with
Ted Hausotter, for his fresh fall Oregon hops.There were not many requests.I think the newer members may not know
how good they are.And, if 1 lb. is
too much of one variety, we should work out some splits next time.

Fil is giving BIER members special deals, Happy Hour prices all the
time.Don’t forget, he had
our membership cards printed, no cost to us.Thanks, Fil, we really appreciate your
generosity.

Jason Fletcher brought the BIER tee shirts we requested, and he printed a
few extras, so if you’re interested, he might have your size.$10 for most sizes, XXL are $12.

We discussed pH meters, and electrode maintenance.It’s really best to keep the
electrode in storage solution, like the 4.0 calibration buffer.

Rich –Kölsch,
made on his PicoBrewZymatic, has
more and better malt flavor than the ones Dave King (2) had in Koln, Germany.It was brewed with Pilsner and some
Vienna malt, Chinook and Centennial hops, fermented with a Kölsch yeast,
which is a hybrid yeast, between ale and lager.It also has Pineapple
Sage in it. Very
tasty.Rich made it as a starter
for an Oktoberfest beer.

Bernie & Donna – Cream
Ale, actually a “clean out the closet” beer.His 1st Brew In A Bag, 3%
ABV. He super squeezed the bag, no
tannins noted by us.

Matt – Amber Ale, 1.046 to 1.008, nice easy drinking, with good malt
flavor, only 2 weeks in the bottle.

James
Dunn – Red Ale, all Redx
Maltfrom Bestmalz, with Eldorado Hops, for FWH, 20 and 10 min. remaining. A very tasty SMASH beer. 1.048 to 1.008, with WLP-001
yeast.

Tom DeSantis and Kris Kinne – Chocolate Pumpkin Milk Stout, fermented in a couple big pumpkins.It gushed, but didn’t have any off
flavors. See the photo, and no that’s
not mold, it’s oatmeal, used to reseal the pumpkins.

Dave King (2) – Dad’s Brown Ale, wet dry hopped with his own unknown
hops, we all agreed, it was “grassy,” common for wet dry hopping,
which some people like, some not so much.